The Great Pawnshop Heist of 1926: Part Two

When we left our story last week, one of the daring pawn shop bandits had been shot down by a police detective, while the other three had just made their getaway in a hijacked taxicab…

As the driver Ulrich sped west on Wells Street, the gunman Malloy punched out the passenger-side window and peppered shots back towards Detective Mauger. Malloy’s simple plan had gone terribly awry. One of their men had been shot and perhaps killed, the police had spotted their car, and the bulk of their loot – everything but the hundred or so dollars they had shoved in their pockets – lay back at the scene. As Malloy ordered Ulrich to turn left onto North Thirteenth Street, their fortunes were crossed yet again. Motorcycle patrolman Herman Rehberg just happened to waiting for a light at the corner of Wells and Thirteenth. When he saw the taxi screech wildly through the intersection, he hit his siren and gave chase.

Rehberg quickly caught up to the cab. He pulled alongside and was about to order it to the side of the road when Malloy stuck his pistol out the window and fired twice. The shots shattered his windshield and sent him careening wildly in the snowy street. As the cab passed Clybourn Street, a patrol car alerted to the robbery on the radio joined the chase. As Rehberg’s bike slid off the road, the patrol car slowed and Rehberg jumped aboard.

The chase continued south, blasting across the Ember Lane Bridge and onto South Sixteenth Street. Malloy continued to fire back at the cops, hitting the grill of the car at least once. With the streets busy and pedestrians all along the route, the cops held fire. The taxi made a sharp left turn on West National Avenue and unleashed a volley of shots at their pursuers. On the sidewalks, people ducked for cover and fell flat to the ground. As the chase neared Greenbush Avenue (now South Fourth), the police car began to stagger. One of the bandit’s gunshots had pierced the radiator. The car struggled and slowly rolled to a stop on the snowy street as the hijacked taxi sped away.

The bandits finally ordered Ulrich to stop a few blocks later, at the corner of Kinnickinnic and East Bay. The three fled in the direction of the car ferry docks. Ulrich phoned police and, within minutes, cops swarmed all over the area. The abandoned cab, littered with shell casings and its windows all broken or shot out, had a large pool of on its floor, the result of Malloy’s badly-injured hand. Searching an area saloon, police were told that men matching Fitz and Vilatis’s descriptions had just left, walking towards another nearly bar. Detectives surrounded the place and the first men inside found the two men in the back washroom, cleaning up. They offered no resistance, and quickly admitted to the crime. In a drawer of one of the bar’s tables, police recovered $120 in cash taken from the pawn shop register – the only money the bandits had managed to escape with.

From the saloon, the police spread out. There were only two houses in the area. After officers found nothing in the first, they moved on to the home of Fred Luedke at 153 Allen Street. Luedke told the cops that he had been shaving in an upstairs bathroom, but had heard an odd noise from his basement. Police entered the basement with guns drawn, and quickly focused on a lop-sided potato sack leaning against a wall. They shouted for Malloy to show his hands. The sack rustled and a pair of hands emerged from the opening. Malloy was placed under arrest and soon confessed.

William Knight, who limped into court and was blindsided with a 20-year sentence.

The following day, the men were hauled into court, where each plead guilty. Knight struggled into the room with a cane and was helped to his seat by a bailiff. He noted to the judge that the doctor had told him he would likely never walk normally again. Speaking to the group’s motivation, Malloy only offered, “We were broke… I told the other fellows it would be easy money.” Malloy admitted being the ringleader and that he had done nearly all of shooting, but insisted that he had not intended to injure anyone. The men expected sentences topping out at two or three years, but the judge held no sympathy for them or their rotten luck. He gave Malloy 30 years and gave Fitz, Knight, and Vilatis 20 apiece. The next day, they were taken on the train to Waupun to begin their sentences.

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